Last Week Recap, Part One

February 2010 has been the craziest that I can remember. We've been running from day to day like chickens with our heads cut off. So I can not truly express to you how much I'm enjoying this sunny Monday morning because Maggie is in New Hampshire with Jane and cousin Ana, and Kate is upstairs taking her morning nap. One kid, two naps!! It just doesn't get any better than that! Kate is positively giddy being the only child for a couple of days, getting all the attention and playing with all the toys unhindered. Here's a video of her last night at dinner being beside herself (yes, we were winding her up a little bit):

So now let's flash back about a week. [Doodle-oo, doodle-oo, Wayne's World flashback fingers] Mike and I dropped the punks off at Gram and Grandpa's and took the Bolt Bus down to NYC to visit Amy and Roger while they could still have adult people sleeping on the floor in their nursery nook. The Bolt Bus is awesome - leather seats, wifi and electrical outlets, bathroom, convenient drop off points, cheap tickets. I highly recommend it if you are travelling around the East Coast... without children, that is. We thoroughly enjoyed napping, sitting quietly in the dark, reading, and staring slack-jawed out the window with nothing to do.

We had an awesome weekend bumming around the Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, and Chinatown/Little Italy with Amy and Roger! We went to the Tenement Museum, which was fascinating. We ate reubens and pastrami at Katz's Deli, drank beer at Lederhosen and Whiskey Park, and had Sunday bluegrass brunch at Nolita House. Then we watched the tail end of the Chinese New Year parade from the fire escape outside the Brandt's bathroom window! My intrepid sister-in-law practically pirouetted out the window despite her big baby belly, about which I am deeply impressed. Chinatown feasted and danced and banged on drums, the Empire State Building was lit up yellow and red, and confetti drifted through the air. It was pretty exciting. Too bad we couldn't stay longer!